In this book, Larry Cuban looks at the uses and effects of digital technologies in K-12 classrooms, exploring if and how technology has transformed teaching and learning. In particular, he examines forty-one classrooms across six districts in Silicon Valley that have devoted special attention and resources to integrating digital technologies into their education practices.

The results reflect Cuban's nuanced understanding not only of digital technologies and their uses, but of the complex interrelations of policy and practice, and of the many--often unintended--consequences of reforms and initiatives in the education world. The Flight of a Butterfly or the Path of a Bullet? is a crucial contribution to our understanding of digital technologies and their place in contemporary education practice from one of our leading scholars of education policy, practice, and reform.

"Larry Cuban's insightful study of exemplary educational technologies validates their place in the contemporary classrooms that he observes in this book. But his close examination also reveals that the introduction of digital technologies has not resulted in fundamental instructional changes. With wisdom and a profound sense of the larger historical context, Cuban reminds us that these incremental shifts have been meaningful and enriching for those involved--even if they have not transformed American schooling as hoped."
--Louise Bay Waters, superintendent and CEO, Leadership Public Schools, California

"Want glib comments about education reform? Read Twitter. Want nuance? Read Larry Cuban's latest book. He documents both the successes and failures of recent education technologies. Cuban looks carefully at contemporary classrooms and at the work of teachers and students alike--then steps back to show how the digital innovations at work in those classrooms fit into a century of educational reforms."
--Mike Goldstein, founder, Match Education

Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.

Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. He has taught courses in the methods of teaching social studies; the history of school reform, curriculum, and instruction; and leadership. His background in the field of education before becoming a professor includes fourteen years of teaching high school social studies in big-city schools, directing a teacher education program that prepared returning Peace Corps volunteers to teach in inner-city schools, and serving for seven years as a district superintendent.

His most recent books are Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools (2016); Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice: Change Without Reform in American Education (2013); As Good as It Gets: What School Reform Brought to Austin (2010); Hugging the Middle: How Teachers Teach in an Era of Testing and Accountability (2009); Partners in Literacy (with Sondra Cuban, 2007); Against the Odds: Insights from One District's Small School Reform (coauthor, 2010); and Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform (with Jane David, 2010).